With stunning art, an exciting heist, and a steamy romance between a good girl detective and bad boy billionaire, Art of Love could have leaned into the sleek and campy tension of the original 2005 Mr. & Mrs. Smith. There’s some of it here, with the investigation bringing up her previous, sensual memories of the romance that was, and Esra Bilgiç and Birkan Sokullu looking so, so gorgeous dressed in the most stylish outfits. But the film mostly plays out in generic Netflix fashion, with the characters replaying dated clichés, and not actually dealing with the emotional betrayal that should have marked Güney’s abandonment. Art of Love is at least beautiful to look at.
Synopsis
After learning that the art thief she has been chasing is her ex-lover, an officer working for Interpol concocts a plan to catch him red-handed.
Storyline
One of Interpol’s Art Crime Unit’s cases involves a thief who steals the least valuable romantic paintings from supposedly burglar-proof museums. After finding out that this art thief is the same billionaire ex-fiancé that abandoned her, Interpol detective Alin concocts a plan to catch him red-handed.
TLDR
Okay, but we need the exact outfits Esra Bilgiç is wearing, because the costume design is downright lovely.
What stands out
Art of Love depicts Prague in such a beautiful fashion, that I’m honestly suspecting they just made this film so that the cast and crew would have a Prague vacation. Good for them, if this is true.
Poor translation of Thomas Crown Affair